Facebook has a mentorship program available to people within select groups with a focus on parenting, professional, or personal development. This means admins can offer this feature to members of their groups. Those who are members of groups using this feature can offer or find support. Members can determine how much time they want to spend together and what goals you want to work towards. 

Here’s how it works 

Group admins create a mentorship program

Admins can choose from a variety of template programs, such as career advancement, skill development, or encouragement and support, and select the one that best fits their community’s needs.

People sign up as a mentor/ mentee

Group members can sign up to be a mentor or a mentee then create a profile indicating what they’re looking for support with, or how they might be able to provide support. All group members can see these answers and start a mentorship conversation with you in Messenger. 

Mentors:

•  Explain what you can help with: Talk about strengths / skills.
• Be yourself: Mention a hobby or interest.
• Share why you want to help: Let people know what inspired you to do this.
• Reaching you: Indicate preferred ways and times to communicate.

Mentees:

• Share what you need help with: Talk about the kind of support you need.
• Be yourself: Mention a hobby or interest. It will help people to get to know you. 
• Describe what kind of mentor you need: Include qualities or specific kinds of experience that will help you.
• Reaching you: List your preferred ways and times to communicate.

Here is what happens each week

Week 1: Get to Know Each Other 

Introduce yourself and share what you hope to get out of this program. Discuss what will make this mentorship more successful like how you prefer to communicate and what your schedule is like. Tell each other about your current jobs. What do you love about it? What do you wish was different?

Week 2 – 7: Continue Getting to Know Each Other

During these weeks topics discussed include:

What was your first job?

What's a good piece of advice someone gave you?

Describe a trip you took that was memorable.

If you had a free day, how would you spend it?

Talk about someone you admire

What's something you've done that you're proud of?

Week 8: Identify Your Strengths

Make a list of your favorite and least inspiring parts of your work. Discuss ways your career can be aligned to interests.

Week 9: Setting Goals

What career goals fit your strengths? What small steps you can take to achieve your career goals.

Week 10: Making a Plan

Work with your mentor to identify what steps you need to take in order to achieve your goal in the ideal amount of time.

Week 11: Measuring Success

Take some time to reflect on your progress so far. Have you reached some of your goals?

Week 12: Celebrating Wins

Review all that you have accomplished together!

Your turn

What do you think? Is this something you would want to be a part of in a group in which you participate? How could you use this in your work? 

Lisa Nielsen (@InnovativeEdu) has worked as a public-school educator and administrator since 1997. She is a prolific writer best known for her award-winning blog, The Innovative Educator. Nielsen is the author of several booksand her writing has been featured in media outlets such as The New York Times,The Wall Street Journal, Tech&Learning, and T.H.E. Journal.   

More and more educators and schools are using Facebook to connect with families. However, they might not be connecting with as many families as possible if they are not ensuring they are posting inclusive content. This is particularly important in places like New York City which serves a population where 20% of students have disabilities. About half of the population speaks a language other than English at home according to census bureau data.  

Plain Language

Posts should be written below a grade 9 level. This is so the content can be more accessible for those with cognitive or neurological issues. It is also because plain language translates more accurately than complex language.

Alt Text

Add alt text to your images so that those using screen readers know what is is your image.  Here is how:

For New Photos

1)  Select "Edit Photo" 

2)  Click "Alt text" and enter text 

For Existing Photos  

1) Click on the picture in the post. 

2) Select "Options" under the picture. 

3) Select "Change Alt Text."

4) Select "Override generated text."  

5) Enter new text and save.

Checking Photos for Alt Text

To see if a photo has alt text follow these steps.

1) Right click on the photo and select "inspect." 

2) When you are in the inspect screen click accessibility and see what words come up for image. 

Your Turn

What do you think? Will you incorporate these tips into past and future Facebook posts? 

Lisa Nielsen (@InnovativeEdu) has worked as a public-school educator and administrator since 1997. She is a prolific writer best known for her award-winning blog, The Innovative Educator. Nielsen is the author of several booksand her writing has been featured in media outlets such as The New York Times,The Wall Street Journal, Tech&Learning, and T.H.E. Journal.   

If you are a member, moderator, or admin of any Facebook group, you may have heard a buzz that they are kicking out members unless they prove they are active. 

Is this true?

Let's look at the buzz.  Some admins are complaining that they're losing thousands of members. Some are saying they weren't informed in advance and there is no way to appeal. To prevent this, some admins are encouraging members to show some activity to stay in the group.  

Here's an example:

 However, this isn't what is actually happening.  

What is happening is that Facebook wants authentic membership rather than falsely inflated groups.  This happens when admins and moderators invite hundreds or thousands of people who never asked to be invited. These people are in the group, even if they never accept the invitation. What happens when unscrupulous admins do this is thatgroups look popular, when they're really not.

What Facebook has done is moved those people who were not active to the "invited" list. It looks like this: 

 If an admin thinks that person may actually want to be in your group, they can send a reminder to accept the invitation.  You can read more details on group invites at Facebook's help center.

There is also something called "unavailable." These are people who have deactivated their account or are no longer members of the group.

It looks like this: 

 You can read more details about unavailable group members at the Facebook help center.

Here is the notification Facebook provided for group admins:  

 The Verdict

This is a move by Facebook to create more authentic groups. This means groups that represent those who are active and care about the topic of the group. The result for members is that they are aware of the people who choose to be in and interact in the group. The result for admins is that they can see who really wants to be in the group as well as those who've deactivated their accounts or removed themselves from the group. 

Lisa Nielsen (@InnovativeEdu) has worked as a public-school educator and administrator since 1997. She is a prolific writer best known for her award-winning blog, The Innovative Educator. Nielsen is the author of several booksand her writing has been featured in media outlets such as The New York Times,The Wall Street Journal, Tech&Learning, and T.H.E. Journal.   

Innovative educators are generally good fact checkers and don't fall for chain social posts like the one making its rounds about seeing the same 26 people on Facebook. They know to verify and that even a basic search on The Google will help you find out if what you are reading is fact or fake.

A reason so many people were quick to believe "the same 26 people" story is because Facebook does have an algorithm that limits the posts you see. Fortunately, there are fast, simple, and logical ways to change that.

1) View "Most Recent"

From your home page, change your News Feed from "Top Stories" to "Most Recent."

2) Edit Preferences

Under most recent you'll see an option to "Edit Preferences." Select that.

3) Set priorities

This is most important. You can select what and who you want to see first. Go in and select if you want to see friends only, pages only, or specific people. If you click "People you see first" it will show you a list of your selections.

[Simple Tip for Quality Posting & Consuming on Facebook]

4) Unfollow people and groups

You don't have to unfriend anyone. Just stop following them. Same goes for groups and pages. If you don't want to see updates, just update preferences.

5) Reconnect

If you decide Uncle Joe or that nosy colleague aren't so bad after all, don't worry. You can always reconnect.

6) Discover Pages

Facebook will suggest to you pages you may want to follow. If you're looking to add more to your news feed, just click "Like."

7) See more options

Was there an app that you hid, but you don't want to hide it any more? Don't worry. Go to "See more options" and select "Show."

8) Snooze, Hide, or Unfollow right from your feed.

You don't need to search and know everyone you'd like to stop seeing posts from off the top of your head. If you notice a friend shares particular boring posts, just click on the three dots at the top right of their post and you have the option to unfollow them there. If you're sick of seeing posts about the president, just select "Hide post" and you'll see fewer such posts. If you can't stand how much your brother-in-law posts during football season, but really like following him other times of the year, just "snooze" him for 30 days.

If you really want control over your news feed, no need to beg your friends to leave a comment. Just follow these 8 tips. It's an instant fix. Involves just you. It's customized and it works!

Lisa Nielsen (@InnovativeEdu) has worked as a public-school educator and administrator since 1997. She is a prolific writer best known for her award-winning blog, The Innovative Educator. Nielsen is the author of several books and her writing has been featured in media outlets such as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Tech&Learning, and T.H.E. Journal.

You've seen the dramatic posts of friends who are bidding Facebook adieu because Facebook knows too much or it’s too depressing or, on and on...

I won't be one of those leaving Facebook, unless something better comes along. That's because I don't have the problems with it that others do and the benefits far outweigh the drawbacks.

Here's why...

Problems I don't have with Facebook

Targeted ads

Yes. Of course there are targeted ads based on my use of Facebook. I don't pay for Facebook, so I expect they'll use my habits to target ads and a lot of times, I'll pay Facebook back by buying what I see being advertised.

Facebook knows about me and sells my data

Yes. Facebook knows about me and it uses what it knows to sell my data. It knows the things that others who know me, may perceive or pick up on like I live away from my hometown, work in education, travel, and am likely to engage with liberal political content. It knows habits I may not even have been aware of like that I have a lot of close friends who are expats and my multicultural affinity is African American.

Facebook is interested in this, as stated above, because it makes money off of targeting ads, just like Amazon knows what I like based on my purchasing habits. I am who I am, and I don't mind if others know it or use it to tailor marketing.I find it surprising that anyone would be shocked about this. It is the tradeoff for free services.

Why Facebook is worth it

Organizing and eventsWhen Facebook came on to the scene, Evite quickly became a thing of the past for master organizers. When it comes to organizing and events, Facebook rules. Whether you take poll to see who is available or who will bring what or use the event function to see who is attending and let others see as well.

Relationship building

Relationships are one of the most important parts of life and there has never been a better relationship-building tool than Facebook. I have worked more than 20 years as an innovative educator in New York City. For most of my career I worked in isolation. There was usually just one person like me (tech teacher, library media specialist, tech coach) in each school. It was difficult to connect and share ideas.

Difficulty in connecting with others who share your interest is a thing of the past. We get to meet the minds of others before their faces and stay connected and keep the conversations going after we've met face-to-face. This allows powerful connections and relationships to develop that in my case make the lives of children better.In Facebook we trust?No. Don't "trust" Facebook. Question it. Think about its motives. Talk about it. Make smart decisions. Support the lawsuits that question its motives and result in change. Facebook is a business. Among others, we are the clients. Be smart about how to make Facebook work for you.

Your Turn

What do you think? Do the benefits of Facebook outweigh the drawbacks? Have people you've known left Facebook who could have just adjusted their habits and decreased the drawbacks while enjoying the benefits? What are your recommended best practices on Facebook for yourself, your students, and their families?

Lisa Nielsen writes for and speaks to audiences across the globe about learning innovatively and is frequently covered by local and national media for her views on “Passion (not data) Driven Learning,” "Thinking Outside the Ban" to harness the power of technology for learning, and using the power of social media to provide a voice to educators and students. Ms. Nielsen has worked for more than a decade in various capacities to support learning in real and innovative ways that will prepare students for success. In addition to her award-winning blog, The Innovative Educator, Ms. Nielsen’s writing is featured in places such as Huffington Post, Tech & Learning, ISTE Connects, ASCD Wholechild, MindShift, Leading & Learning, The Unplugged Mom, and is the author the book Teaching Generation Text.

Facebook has helped develop the “Summit Personalized Learning Platform,” an online tool that the social media giant built collaboratively with Summit Public Schools, a nonprofit charter school network with headquarters in Silicon Valley. The new Summit Personalized Learning Platform reportedly allows students to select their own projects and work at their own pace. The initiative began with a partnership between Summit Schools and Facebook in 2014 and will expand this year to more than 100 new schools. In a Facebook post, Diane Tavenner, CEO of Summit Public Schools, writes, “Bringing personalized learning to classrooms is hard work and people should expect that it will take more than one year to see progress.”